because i love you
by a j f a y e
Summary: a katie/oliver one-shot, a different perspective after hufflepuff defeated gryffindor


_"Where is Wood?" asked Harry, suddenly realizing he wasn't there._

_"Still in the showers," said Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself."_

-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Katie trooped out of the Hospital Wing behind the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, trailing mud and grime across the shiny white floor as Madame Pomfrey shooed them all away. In front of Katie, Fred and George were holding a hushed debate on an appropriate revenge against Diggory for snatching the snitch while Harry fell fifty feet off his broomstick. They seemed to be playing with the ideas of charming his hair red and gold and ambushing him with a jinx where he could only speak in limericks about how great Gryffindor is, or slipping some Swelling Solution in his morning pumpkin juice and observing its affects. Outside, rain still lashed against the windows and wind howled outside the castle walls. Katie caught a glimpse from a window of the Quidditch locker rooms as they headed towards the Gryffindor Tower and thought of Wood, and whether or not he was still attempting to drown himself in the showers.

"I'll catch up with you guys, alright?" said Katie. Angelina and Alicia just nodded, still sullen from their recent defeat, while Fred and George were so absorbed in their conversation they hardly noticed as Katie slipped down another corridor. Quickly Katie took a secret passageway concealed behind a tapestry of Eargit the Ugly and emerged at the top of the wide marble staircase leading to the Entrance Hall. Taking the steps two at a time, she barely managed to keep herself from slipping in her wet sneakers until she reached the heavy oak doors. More carefully this time, she battled her way across the grounds against the howling wind and rain, wondering if she'd ever be properly dry again. Finally she reached the locker rooms and stopped outside of the showers.

"Oliver Wood!" she called, her robes swirling in the accumulated steam. "Come out right this instant!"

With no response, Katie continued, "don't make me drag you out here myself, Wood!"

Moments later the sound of the gushing shower halted, and a wallowing Oliver Wood stepped out, a towel wrapped around his waist. "What do you want Bell?" he asked dully, stepping over to his locker.

"I want to know if you're all right." Katie suddenly felt very alone in the locker room with Oliver, and wished she had brought any of the other team members with her.

Oliver didn't reply, but turned his back to her and opened his locker. "Turn around Bell," he ordered with a bit of his old authoritative self.

Katie turned away until he was fully clothed, before rounding on him again. "Well?"

"This was _our_ year," said Oliver distantly, as if he wasn't even paying attention. "This was my _last chance_ for the Cup." His expression was so utterly hopeless, Katie almost felt scared. Never had she seen Oliver Wood, the manic Quidditch Captain who manages to drag his team out onto the pitch for five AM practices on a Saturday, and spends his every thought on Quidditch, look so depressed. It was if the Dementors had given him the Kiss, and taken his soul.

"We're not totally out of the running Oliver," said Katie hopefully. "If Slytherin loses to Hufflepuff, and Hufflepuff loses to Ravenclaw and we beat Ravenclaw and Slytherin…we only need a margin of a hundred points, either way."

Oliver did not seem to be listening, though.

Now Katie began growing angry, Oliver Wood _never_ gave up, it just didn't happen. If Oliver Wood lost a Quidditch match, he scheduled double the amount of practices and came up with a dozen new plays. Oliver Wood was stubborn, hard headed, and absolutely intolerable when it came to Quidditch. "Oliver Wood, you are the most dedicated, obsessed, and talented Captain out there. If _you_ don't believe we can win the Cup, then the rest of the team won't. You've never let a loss stop you before—you always believe we'll _always_ win, no matter what. You eat, sleep, and breathe Quidditch, and your team needs you _when_ we're going to win that bloody Cup this year!"

Oliver stared at her for a moment, an odd expression on his face. "I can't," he finally said. "I can't do it anymore. Harry could have _died_ today. Any team member could have died today—_you_ could have died!"

Katie was absolutely bewildered at this change in conversation. "That's never stopped you before," she argued. "I recall last season you told Harry to catch the snitch or die trying."

"Well Harry isn't _you_," stated Oliver.

"Why does that matter?" countered Katie.

"Because I love you."

For the first time Katie realized the true meaning of the expression 'speechless'. She was sure that her vocal chords must have stopped functioning from shock, because no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't choke out a single syllable.

Oliver Wood had just told her he loved her.

Sure, she had been infatuated with him back in her Second year, but then she had been young and he was her older, handsome, and mysterious Quidditch Captain. Now she was a Fourth year and he was a Seventh year, and _graduating_ that year, and he was her Captain who just wasn't capable of loving anything but Quidditch. But he had just said that he loved her, and now she realized she loved him too. Oliver, her obsessive Quidditch Captain with a manic glint in his eye and a thousand different plays in his playbook. Oliver, who fixed her broken nose when a bludger had smashed into it, and would help her with Transfiguration, and yell at her to get to bed early the day before a match. And now he was looking at her with those brown eyes full of sadness after all she could do was stare at him, and he looked as if he was getting ready to leave when she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her lips against his.

"I can take care of myself you know," she said, coming up for air.

"I'm worried I won't be able to catch you if you fall," he admitted.

"I trust you."

"How can you trust me?" he asked ruefully. "I let Harry fall today. I couldn't stop it, I couldn't see—"

"Because I love you," replied Katie simply, and kissed him again because just right then he wasn't her obsessive Captain, but Oliver Wood, and he loved her and she loved him and she knew that tomorrow he would train harder than ever because he just _had_ to win the Cup this year. But right now he loved her and the Cup just _didn't_ matter and Harry _didn't_ die and everything was just perfect because she knew that he would never let her fall, and that's really all that mattered.

**A/N;; because sometimes Oliver is the hopeless one and Katie needs to take charge **


End file.
